Cannes Film Festival: “Titane” wins the Palme d’Or prize

by KM, Movie Lightbox

“This evening had been perfect because it’s not so perfect, I love it, it’s great. it has heart, it was amazing, Thank you Spike!”, said Julia Ducournau upon accepting the Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, for her sophomore feature film, Titane.

A bold choice for the Palme, Titane tells the story of a young woman who has peculiar relationship with cars after surviving a traumatic car crash in her childhood. French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, is the only second female director to win the festival’s top prize in its 74 year history, after Jane Campion for The Piano way back in 1993.

Confusion reigned early during the announcement of major prizes when Jury President Spike Lee mistakenly read the Palme d’Or winner instead of revealing the first prize of the evening, the award for Best Actor. He later apologized for the gaffe at the Closing Ceremony. Right after, at the press conference of the jury, Lee mentioned when asked about the process of selecting the winners, “We had to work it out, we saw 24 films and there’s no 24 awards, we knew we had to come to a decision. Nobody yelled their voice but people had passion and conviction for the films and that’s a beautiful thing”. Division on cinematic viewpoints among jury members were clear when they decided to split the Grand Prix award between Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero and Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6. The Jury Prize were also awarded to two films in Competition, Aheed’s Knee by Nadav Lapid and Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasehakul. The Best Director prize went to Leos Carax for his musical film Annette.

The top award was presented by Sharon Stone and Spike Lee to Julia Ducournau. During her speech, she acknowledged the jury for calling for diversity in film experiences. At the press conference, when asked about her feeling about the prize as a gesture for gender equality, Ducournau stated, “Quite frankly, I hope that the prize I received has nothing to do with the fact that I am a woman. I don’t think that what I do defines me as a woman. I can’t be boiled down to just being a woman. As a second woman, I have the impression that I belong to a movement that is underway, there will be a third, there will be a fourth, there will be a fifth woman. That’s all I can say to answer your question.”

Here’s the full list of the awards presented at the Closing Ceremony of the 74th Festival de Cannes:

Palme d'or

TITANE directed by Julia DUCOURNAU

Grand Prix (ex aequo)

GHAHREMAN (A Hero) directed by Asghar FARHADI
 HYTTI N°6 (Compartment N°6) directed by Juho KUOSMANEN

 Best Director

Leos CARAX for ANNETTE

Best Screenplay

HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke & TAKAMASA Oe for DRIVE MY CAR

Jury Prize (ex aequo)

MEMORIA directed by Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL
HA’BERECH (Ahed's Knee) directed by Nadav LAPID

Best Performance by an Actress

Renate REINSVE in VERDENS VERSTE MENNESKE (The Worst Person in the World)
directed by Joachim TRIER

Best Performance by an Actor

Caleb LANDRY JONES in NITRAM
directed by Justin KURZEL

Caméra d'or

MURINA directed by Antoneta Alamat KUSIJANOVIC 

unveiled in the frame of LA QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS

Short Films

Palme d'or

TIAN XIA WU YA (All the Crows in the World) directed by TANG Yi

Special Mention

CÉU DE AGOSTO (August Sky) directed by Jasmin TENUCCI

Honorary Palme d’Or

Marco Bellochio

Images courtesy of Festival de Cannes